Indian art: Kashida embroidery
Some pieces of clothing combine traditional trends with modern style designs in excellent quality fashionable pieces. Often inspired from nature, Kashida embroidery patterns are counted amongst the most successful.
Also known as Kashmir embroidery, it uses one or two stitching techniques in a blend of trend and style. Its color, texture and design makes it quite popular, and what makes it particular is that it was originally practiced by men for commercial craft purposes.
Kashida embroidery uses cotton or wool fabrics in white, crème or other similar light shades, with stitching made out of a single thread which offers a flat appearance to shawls, sarees and other dress materials, thus increasing their elegance. The basic fabrics can be found in white, green, purple, blue, yellow and black color. The threads used for this type of embroidery may vary. From crystal, to local Pashima (silk threads) and leather, the threads on the Kashida embroidery artistically cover either side of a shawl or entire surfaces of a stole.
The motifs outline fruits, birds or natural flowers and leafs as most common, sometimes blossoms, trees and even fruits. A wide range of pastel colors is necessary to render these designs. Though they may seem rather demanding pieces, most of them are hand or machine washable and can be also suitable for household furnishings.
Three stitching methods are more popular, though the entire fabric can be made out of only one type of stitch at times. The satin stitch blends in both long and short stitches, filling in large surfaces of the fabric without pulling the cloth. It is the most complex stitching method used. Chain stitch covers inferior places of the fabric and is often used on home adorning articles such as rugs or wall hangings . Stem stitching is less used but keeps the same fitness on both sides though not excelling as a too expensive piece of Kashida embroidery.
Less popular zaladko, vatachik, talibar or doori remain a traditional heritage of Indian culture but did not as widely manage to spread outside the Indian borders.
Kashida embroidery splits into three types when referring to the motif design. One of them is the sozni or dorutka. As curiously as it may seem, the motifs on sozni embroidery appear in different colors on each side of the fabric. No side is wrong; the same design is simply being produced in different colors on both sides, in a skillfully crafted piece.
The other type of needle embroidery is locally known as papier mache. Flowers and leaves are sewed in bright colored satin stitches outlined afterwards in black color in order to better highlight the shapes.
A third type of Kashida embroidery is called ari or hook embroidery. It uses the same flower designs but is crafted in chain stitching arranged in concentric rings.
The embroidery of Kashida is well known all over the world for the creativity that defines its local artisans. The features that make it popular are elegance and decency, so characteristic to the Indian culture and tradition.
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